Table Official experience

[Kansas Ref]

My association put out an invite/request for table officials at the NJCAA tournament last wknd. I volunteered. I got sit-in on the pre-game, mid-game, and post-game ref meetings (and also a VIP pass into the hospitality room which served great food, gave out tshjirts, and snaks). At any rate my own experience has been in highschool and middle school; however, these were college level refs. It was certainly quite an experience to hear how meticulously they talked about their own performance and the flow of the game. The refs had a couple of occassions wherein a "triple whistle" was given on a foul---they all seemed to be truly upset that this occurred in discussions of post-game--they seemed embarrased that it occured--although I'm certain no one but them noticed it. Of special note in the pre-game, one of the refs admonished the others in the crew that "if you come making a call in my primary area you had better be getting an 'elephant' and not just a 'mouse'. Then one of the other refs said "make it a goal to be 100% accurate in your own primarey area and let the other ref do their job". Ostensibly this was a not-so-subtle warn to not screw around in my coverage area. Maybe this is something that is problem at times? Also, they really watched and noted tendencies of players and coaches to an extent that I must say my own crew never does. They thoroughly discussed about why they either "made" or "passed'' on certain calls. All in all, I can say that in my own experience with the crews I worked with, we never went into that level of meticulous detail--but it was something I can learn from and apply to my own officiating game.